The scenario (Alberta, Canada):
- the oil industry carves up Alberta’s boreal forest;
- the gas industry carves up Alberta’s boreal forest;
- the logging industry carves up Alberta’s boreal forest;
- the caribou is losing its habitat;
- three of the 18 caribou herds are at immediate risk of disappearing because of loss of habitat;
- six caribou herds are in decline;
- three caribou herds are stable; and
- not enough is known about the remaining six caribou herds to determine how well they are doing.
Question:
- how do we start to reverse the decline of the caribou?
Is it answer:
- restrict the oil, gas and logging industries, i.e. protect the caribou habitat?
- eradicate wolves?
Well, the answer is obviously number one yet the Alberta Government has chosen answer number two.
I despair.
iStock. In the last five years, Alberta has spent more than $1 million poisoning wolves and shooting them from the air.
For the full story, please read environment360′s report Killing Wolves: A Product of Alberta’s Big Oil and Gas Boom.
The analysis The Crucial Role of Predators: A New Perspective on Ecology is also worth reading.
David M. Davison
